Shades of Stories, Shards of Time
by Sophia the Scribe
Summary: "When I was young, I traveled round the world / As all adventurers are wont to do..." A poem of many places, times, peoples, and events.
1. Shades of Stories, Shards of Time

**Shades of Stories, Shards of Time  
** by Sophia the Scribe

* * *

When I was young I traveled round the world,  
As all adventurers are wont to do,  
And noticed a most curious occurrence  
That, as I went, still curiouser grew.

In London as I hailed a passing taxi  
And glanced around to see whom I might meet,  
I saw a ghostly man and his companion  
Command a ghostly cabby, "Baker Street!"

I stood and marveled at the Colosseum,  
Still more at what I seemed alone to hear—  
The cheering crowds, the roaring of the lions,  
And witnesses who perished without fear.

On Normandy the silenced guns were pounding  
As dogfights long-complete raged overhead;  
Within the forests echoed satyrs' dancing  
And revelers that, 'ere I found them, fled.

I'm sure I saw a flash of Lincoln colors  
And heard afar a never-ending duel;  
Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms still write their music;  
The shadowy knights await King Arthur's rule.

Upon a tower no one else could enter,  
Within a city no one else could see,  
I heard the chink and clang of silver armor  
And saw the branches of a withered tree.

The North Wind's voice to my ear was not silent,  
The Wardrobe's door to my hand was not drawn,  
And in the next room of an English mansion  
Elizabeth and Darcy bantered on.

I glimpsed a red-haired family disappearing  
From King's Cross station in the school-time crowd;  
I heard the ring of Reformation's hammer  
And saw the German princes as they bowed.

The Scarlet Pimpernel is still elusive,  
And Miss Clavel still runs the boarding-school;  
Each Jew the Ten Booms hid still lives in safety;  
The fleas still play each guardsman for a fool.

I travelled South and crossed an endless desert,  
And East, and saw the dust of Mongol hordes,  
And many times I heard the noise of battle  
And, passing, saw the flashing glint of swords.

The Rostov home for wounded men is open,  
The Red Sea still is parted shore-to-shore,  
The _Flying Dutchman_ never rounds the headlands,  
And Krakow's trumpet sounds forevermore.

I noted, 'mid the Transylvanian snowfall,  
The faithful band that wrought the Count's defeat;  
At Salamis I heard the battle-clamor  
As stalwart Greeks destroyed the Persian fleet.

I stood among the storied Trojan ruins  
And saw encamped the great Achaean throng;  
I sailed afar and heard the echoing cannons  
And, deadly-sweet, the lure of siren-song.

Within the sea the Nautilus still wanders,  
And Moby-Dick evades grim Ahab's wrath;  
Upon the ships toward Ellis Island's welcome  
So many take the Lady's torch-lit path.

The Indians and Pilgrims are yet feasting,  
And Daniel Boone still guards Kentucky's folk;  
I saw the slaves rejoice in rightful freedom;  
In Gettysburg I smelt the acrid smoke.

The steel-boats still motor down to Cleveland;  
In Kitty Hawk the pilot craft still flies;  
Within the stormy clouds I heard the voices  
Of ghostly cowboys riding through the skies.

I laughed at Anne and Gilbert as they argued;  
I saw the Forty-Niners pan for gold;  
The loyal pets are ever on their journey,  
The sunken submarines still on patrol.

I stood upon the crossroads of a ghost town  
And thought I heard the sounds of settlers' lives;  
I saw a man on lonely sagebrush ridges  
And smiled that even now the Ranger rides.

Above I heard the migrant swans a-calling  
And thought I caught a glimpse of glinting brass;  
From East to West through wild, lonely country  
I saw the shadowy Expedition pass.

I roamed the Rockies as the misty twilight  
Made timbered valleys seem but passing myths  
And saw afar a stern and weathered figure—  
For Jeremiah Johnson ever lives.

Across the plains the prairie schooners sailing  
Dissolve into the mist as they go past,  
And down among the icy breakers rolling  
Each dauntless captain rounds the Horn at last.

At Panama's Canal I saw the swamp-land  
That, drained, so lessened sickness and its price;  
When ice-bound in the cruel Antarctic waters  
I sought, and heard, brave Shackleton's advice.

I twice descried on lonely islands outposts  
Where Crusoe or the Robinsons hold fort;  
The aircraft carriers are ever absent  
From Pearl Harbor's much-imperiled port.

Upon Japan the Air Corps still drops surplus  
For liberated prisoners of war;  
And once, among the thunder-clouds a-churning  
I saw the regal phantom dragons soar.

I glimpsed, beyond the sunlight's glare, a soldier  
Forever watchful, manning the Great Wall;  
The sight of caravans of silks and spices  
In drifting desert sand I yet recall.

The Phoenix ever rises from the ashes;  
Young Mowgli still is fostered by the wolves;  
The Orient Express is yet a crime-scene:  
Poirot that strangely guiltless murder solves.

The motley escapees still cross the Gobi,  
And Hillary still stands on Everest;  
Good Amy Carmichael still helps the children;  
I saw the Ark upon the mountain rest.

I saw the Fertile Crescent in its zenith  
Still fixed as the proud crossroads of the land,  
Admired Babylon's great Hanging Gardens,  
And heard the still, small voice in Sinai's sand.

I watched the shepherd boy defeat Goliath,  
On Carmel saw the heavenly fire descend;  
I heard the echoes of the Hebrew trumpets,  
Saw Jacob's Ladder to the Throne ascend.

Afar I heard—it set my spirit longing—  
The angels sing of glory and of peace;  
I saw the healing, cleansing, and forgiving,  
Partook of that divine and wondrous feast.

Then up to David's Citadel I travelled;  
I heard the cheers, the strife, the treachery;  
And, with the awed centurion confessing,  
I witnessed Jesus' death on Calvary.

I felt the tremors, saw the daylight darkened,  
And knew, and prayed, and hoped outside the grave;  
And at the dawn the seal of death was broken—  
The King, triumphant, rose, my life to save.

And then I saw what gift I had been given  
The glimpses I had heard, and seen, and known:  
And should I live until this world's ending  
I never shall forget what I was shown.


	2. Reference Explanations

The poem has 33 stanzas, a reference to the 33 cantos of Dante's Divine Comedy

1

Use of the word "curiouser" is a nod to the quote "Curiouser and curiouser!" from _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_ (Lewis Carroll)

2

Sherlock Holmes and John Watson "who never lived and so will never die" (Arthur Conan Doyle)

3

Christians martyred under the Roman emperors (Eusebius's _The Church History_ )

4

D-Day invasion of Normandy Beach by the Allied Forces in WW2

"Dogfights" is a term used for fighter plane duels

General Greco-Roman mythology (Ovid's _Metamorphoses_ )/ _Chronicles of Narnia_ (C.S. Lewis) reference

Oblique nod to Mirkwood elves in _The Hobbit_ (J.R.R. Tolkien)

5

Lincoln-green is the color worn by Robin Hood's outlaws

Robin Hood and Little John, Ivanhoe and Gilbert, or any other historical or literary duels

Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig von Beethoven, and Johannes Brahms were possibly the three most influential composers of Western Art Music

The Round Table knights, or any others; it is said that King Arthur will return one day to rule Britain

6

 _The Lord of the Rings_ (J.R.R. Tolkien) was somewhat modeled on Western Civilization

Gondorian soldiers, especially Citadel Guards, wore silver armor

The White Tree was withered for a millennium-and-a-half before the _Return of the King_

7

The main character and door to Paradise from George MacDonald's _At the Back of the North Wind_

The titular wardrobe and door to Narnia from C.S. Lewis's _The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe_

The heroine and hero from Jane Austen's _Pride and Prejudice_

8

The Weasley family from J.K. Rowling's _Harry Potter_ series

Platform Nine and Three-Quarters from the same

Martin Luther nailing the 95 Thesis to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, considered the beginning of the Protestant Reformation

Events surrounding the presentation of the Augsburg Confession to the Holy Roman Emperor in 1530

9

The main character from Baroness Orczy's _Scarlet Pimpernel_ and sequels

The school-marm from Ludwig Bemelmans's _Madelin_ e book series

The Ten Booms hid Jews from the Nazis in Holland (Corrie Ten Boom's _The Hiding Place_ )

In the concentration camp Ravensbruck, Corrie held Bible studies uninterrupted by the guards due to the flea-infestation of the dormitories

10

Eventually the Sahara; also, the world of _The Chronicles of Narnia_ (C.S. Lewis) was somewhat modeled after Western Civilization, and there is a wide desert immediately south of Narnia

Raiding tribes from the Far East ( _The Travels of Marco Polo_ )

Any of history's many battles

11

Location and circumstance from Leo Tolstoy's _War and Peace_

Phenomenon surrounding the flight of the Israelites from Egypt in the biblical book of _Exodus_

Legendary ghost ship that forever strives to round the Cape of Good Hope

Polish legend of the Trumpeter of Krakow

12

The defeat and death of Count Dracula (Bram Stoker's _Dracula_ )

Last battle of the Persian Wars (Herodotus's _The Histories_ )

13

Circumstances immediately preceding the fall of Troy (Homer's _Iliad_ , and others)

Any of many sea-battles, particularly the events of _Master and Commander_ (Patrick O'Brian)

Various legends, including those recorded in Homer's _Odyssey_

14

Submarine of Jules Verne's _Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea_

The white whale and whale-boat captain arch-rivals of Herman Melville's _Moby-Dick_

Large numbers of foreigners immigrated to the United States through Ellis Island's customs office, particularly in the early 1900s

The Statue of Liberty in the mouth of the Hudson River holds a torch that symbolically lights the way to Ellis Island and freedom

15

Circumstances surrounding the First Thanksgiving, in common American consciousness

Outdoorsman and early adventurer and settler in the wilds of Kentucky

The African-Americans held in slavery in the southern United States were freed first by the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln and then by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution

The Battle of Gettysburg is often considered the turning-point of the American Civil War

16

Common historical occurrence; also a reference to Gordon Lightfoot's song _The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald_

The Wright brothers constructed the first functional airplane in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

Reference to Johnny Cash's song _Ghost Riders in the Sky_

17

The heroine and hero of Lucy Maude Montgomery's _Anne of Green Gables_ book series

Prospectors who rushed to California in 1849 to mine for gold

The main "characters" of Sheila Burnford's _The Incredible Journey_

The U.S. Navy refers to sunken submarines not as "lost at sea" but as "still on patrol"

18

Abandoned western towns, often due to a failed or moved railroad line or a mine stripped of ore

The Lone Ranger of American Western folklore

19

Reference to the titular "character" and instrument of E.B. White's _Trumpet of the Swan_

The Lewis and Clark exploratory expedition through the Louisiana Purchase (Stephen Ambrose's _Undaunted Courage_ )

20

Legendary American mountain man; "Maybe he's dead…Maybe he never will be."

21

Covered wagons were called "prairie schooners" because their white tops looked like ships' sails

After the Panama Canal was dug, "rounding the Horn" (Cape Horn) became less a trade-route necessity and more an opportunity for a sea-captain to show his and his crew's prowess

22

Malaria and yellow fever were effectively contained during the building of the Panama Canal by such measures

Captain of the unsuccessful 1914-1917 South Pole expedition; "Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton"

23

Titular wrecked-on-deserted-island characters from Daniel Defoe's _Robinson Crusoe_ and Johann David Wyss's _Swiss Family Robinson_

The bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 was far less crippling to the American Pacific fleet than the Japanese intended due to the absence from port, and thus escape from destruction, of all three aircraft carriers

24

After Japan's surrender, the Army Air Corps air-lifted a surplus of supplies on the starving prison-camps

Dragons are symbolic in Chinese culture

25

The Great Wall of China was built as a defense against the Mongols (the same hordes as in Stanza 10)

Caravans crossed the many deserts to bring silk and spices to the lucrative European markets

26

Mythological bird that dies in flame and is reborn

The main character from Rudyard Kipling's _Jungle Book_

The titular location and crime, and beloved main character, from Agatha Christie's _Murder on the Orient Express_

27

 _The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom_ describes the escape of a group of six from the Siberian labor-camps that involved crossing the Gobi Desert

Edmund Hillary was the first mountaineer to summit Mt. Everest

Amy Carmichael was a Christian missionary to children, especially abandoned girls, in India

Noah's Ark, from the biblical book of Genesis, came to rest on the Mountains of Ararat

28

The Fertile Crescent stretched from Mesopotamia north to Damascus and South again through the Jordan Valley to Egypt

Damascus in particular served as the cross-roads of the ancient world

The Hanging Gardens were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but no one really knows what they looked like

From the biblical book of 1 Kings, when God speaks to Elijah at Sinai not in a thunderstorm, a fire, or an earthquake, but in a "still, small voice"

29

From the biblical book of 1 Samuel, shepherd boy and future king David defeats giant Goliath with a sling and kills him with his own sword

From the biblical book of 1 Kings, Elijah poses a "contest" to the prophets of Baal as to which god can bring down fire from heaven; unsurprisingly, the true God wins

From the biblical book of Joshua, the Israelites collapse the walls of Jericho at God's command by shouting and blowing trumpets

From the biblical book of Genesis, Jacob has a dream that depicts a stairway stretching up to God's throne in heaven, with angels ascending and descending

30

From the Gospels, the angels at Jesus' birth sang, "glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace…"

From the Gospels, Jesus' earthly ministry included many such miracles

From the Gospels, the institution of the Lord's Supper

31

Due to the topography of the region, travelers have to ascend to get to Jerusalem, the City of David

From the Gospels, Holy Week was punctuated with such occurrences

From the Gospels, the centurion at the foot of the cross confessed Jesus' divinity after his death

The pivotal event of the Gospels and all of Scripture

32

From the Gospels, the events of the Crucifixion and Resurrection included earthquakes and darkened sky

From the Gospels, Jesus was buried in a tomb between Friday evening and Sunday morning

The seal of death refers to: the fact that Jesus was dead, the Roman seal Pilate placed on the tomb, and the otherwise-unbreakable hold of death on the world as a whole

Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Life who died as a ransom for sinners and rose to bring them to life again


End file.
